Photograph 5 - The Bubba Gump Shrimp restuarant, Charleston South Carolina.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How strange is our weather? Today we enjoyed a great warm to hot cloudless day. We left Portsmouth by filling up our tank with "gas". The fuel is just over a dollar AUD per litre - cheap. cheap! But our first experience in filling up our red beast was interesting. Neil waited at the bowser(I really should say "pump") to no avail. Apparently one has to go in to the counter and guess how much is needed so......$20 was handed over. Filled the Mustang with $20's worth....pumps stops. Waited a short while....no avail. Again to the counter and paid another $20s worth. This time it was full at the $18 mark. Went back inside and was re-imbursed with $2...sorry no tips today. This is what its like over here - pay up front collect your fuel and get paid back if you have money left over. The locals here just use their credit card at the bowser....sorry pump! If we did that the bank charges would be sky high - it's best for us to pay by cash. We left at 8am and drove 700klms to Charleston - only stopped to have a three rest stops in between. The rest stops are something to believe. Fully fitted luxious toilets....sorry I neeed to say restrooms and vending machines that cater for all food delights. We did go off the beaten track and drove along Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. This is like our Gold Coast QLD. There were many vacationers that made driving along the beach front extremely slow. We reached Charleston at 5pm to another crowded tourist location. Our hotel is right in the main street called Meeting Street which is smack in the histrical centre of Charleston. Just walking down this street are myriads of fine southern style buildings that you would see in Gone With The Wind. We took many pictures of these buildings ...some are late 18th century and many are still private residences. For dinner we shouted ourselves to a seafood cuisine at Bubba Gump Shrimp restaurant - you know - life is like a box of chocolates, Forest said! Yes the restaurant is based on Forest Gump and all is about prawns......sorry I should say shrimps. It was a great repast and we needed to walk along Meeting Street to remove the additional weight we put on. Neil had a LT Dan promegranate cocktail and literally after finishing one large glass became legless (I guess you have to see the movie to understand that one). Tomorrow is a short 2.5 hour drive to Savannah, Georgia - deep in southern territory and looking forward to see this beautiful part of the US. Cheers.